Friday, May 12, 2017

A long time ago, in a land far, far away


50 years ago, me on the left, trying to put in a trach, not successful. 50 years......

17 comments:

  1. That young man did his very best. We are older now, still doing our best. It's another century, a strange one. People need to know how awful war is. It's hard to bring up but they need to know. Thank you, dear Mike.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How awful war is....yeah, it's been an ongoing thing for a large portion of the world, Africa, the Middle East, Bosnia....since that time.
      We've forgotten here in the US....we got really upset when we lost 2K a year in Afghanistan...I know I did, my son was a Ranger there.
      But we've learned little, or nothing. We still do it with technology, drones and the like. We've forgotten what it is to lose people, friends, family.
      I imagine the guy who I couldn't get the trach in, he had wounds in his throat, are probably gone. Maybe he had sibs that remember him. I know I do, though I don't know his name.
      We talk about war, and it's effects, what we can do, etc. But war has it's own agenda, and once you invite it into the mix, it's their party.
      Mike

      Delete
  2. I echo Geo.
    50 years ago I was considering my military options, though full of anger about the war and its political underpinning. Of course I had no clue that in 5 months I'd be hurtled through a windshield, drawn back through the glass and tossed out the passenger door. A couple of months later, awake again, I limped my compound skull fracture and wired face into a pre-induction physical. My path had changed or perhaps we could have met around the edges of such a scene as that photo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry about your injuries, Tom. But, I'm glad you were not there. It didn't do anyone, participant or witness, any good.
      Mike

      Delete
  3. Oh...not sure what to write. Bless you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing to write, m'dear. Just glad you're here.

      Delete
  4. Let's say four walked away from the scene. Two could have been my brother and brother-in-law, both of whom were died in the wool Republicans. Where did they learn it? In the service. Ever notice that infantry follow orders. Paratroopers jump out of planes, as ordered. Batteries fire big guns, as ordered.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dunno I'f I'd lay it all at the feet of the service, Joanne. I rather turned out different, as my son, a Ranger, did decades later. It ain't the service/military that changes people. It may exacerbate it in some, but I don't think it changes people, from what they were before.

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Glad you were not, Martha. Sorry you had people who went.

      Delete
  6. I'm very glad you made it home safely and so very sorry for all those who did not.


    We must take the profit out of war.

    We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.

    We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.


    Major General Smedley Butler's solution

    ReplyDelete
  7. Um....well, look at General Marshall, post WW2's ideas. He had a plan to rebuild Europe, that worked. There are all sorts of ideas, some better than others.
    I don't know what works. I know VN was a disaster, and mistake. I think my son's war, Iraq and Afghanistan, were probably ill conceived also.
    Hard to know in this world, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Non stop war Mike, staggering economies now built on this.

    Evocative photo. I remember the draft dodgers in Toronto. Still friends with some. Passionate and righteous young men.

    You look ike Hawkeye above tho a different "war".

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WWWW.....yeah, like Eisenhower warned us in late '59.

      The 'draft dodgers' were smart, and correct, morals.

      The only similarity to Hawkeye and me was a fondness, transient, to nurses.
      Cheers,
      Mike

      Delete
  9. What a terrible experience. I can't imagine the memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. largely, they fade. Specific, unpredictable things can bring them back, but it get's rarer and rarer as I proceed into my dotage....

      Delete
  10. I have to admit that your photo got to me.
    It makes me sad, and it makes me angry.
    Almost 50 years later and I'm still not completely over it.

    ReplyDelete